


Genius comes in all shapes and sizes

by Animevampire1627



Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Confessions, Gen, childhood bullies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 02:18:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17499719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animevampire1627/pseuds/Animevampire1627
Summary: Finn's actually a genius but why did he keep it secret and what happens when he's forced to reveal it?





	Genius comes in all shapes and sizes

Words to describe Finn.

Energetic, sharpshooter, gullible, loud, tone-deaf, childish and prankster come to mind. Its not that people thought he was dumb or anything, no far from it. It's just he didn't seem to have the attention span for learning anything new.

He was way more interested in girls and sports to bother with academics.

This was true but there was more to him, parts that he kept hidden behind a smiley, flirtatious mask.

Finn was actually something of a genius. He was book smart like Piper but it wasn't crystals that were his speciality. It was inventions: from weapons to sky rides to detection equipment.

It was why he liked Storks inventions and didn't criticise them as much as the others did. He actually thought they were pretty cool if a little pointless.

He always bought the latest issues of invention magazines to keep up to date with what was being invented.

Now to answer the question of why he doesn't show or tell others about his genius was because he was alienated for it at a young age.

On his home terra he was always known to be a bit different, he didn't always like to play with the other children that often, preferring to read instead. Of course if you stand out you gain the attention of people and not always nice ones.

Finn found that out the hard way as he became a target for the local bully who scared the other kids into never talking to him so he was alone even when he didn't want to be.

His parents, noticing how sad their son was and how little confidence he had, signed him up for target practice. Finn having a sharp eye was a natural and slowly gained some self confidence back.

Of course this didn't help him when the Cyclonians attacked and he was forced to flee without his parents.

When he met Aerrow and Radarr, who offered to take him under their wing. He accepted and decided he wanted to keep this person as his friend and as the kids back home didn't like him maybe he could act like someone this kid could like.

He built himself a smiley mask and used it to become something of a sharp shooting man child. He liked it, he could usually make Aerrow and Radarr smile when their bleak situation got to them.

Later with Piper, he had felt ecstatic to meet someone like him but realised he couldn't stop the mask for two reasons. 1) then Aerrow and Raddar would know his whole person had been a lie. 2) Piper was now the teams intellectual, what would they need with two of them?

So he never took off the mask even when their worlds changed forever when they became Storm Hawks and gained two new friends, Junko and Stork.

He felt people needed him more as a jokester than someone who knew about new inventions, they had two mechanics after all.

Little did he know that he would use his knowledge and drop the mask very soon.

\------------Time skip------------

The Condor shook as an energy blast struck her directly, flinging the people inside across the room.

Stork was at the helm trying to dodge, but with the thick fog he had very little visibility and couldn't tell where the next attack would come from.

Finn got out from underneath Junko and looked out of the window, where he could just make out the faint outline of a Cylonian battle cruiser. However once he looked closer he could see that the exterior was different. The top of the cruiser had a round device stuck to the top that he recognised instantly, it was the newest model after all.

He paled. The device was the newest model for tracker technology, the Magnus 300. While normal tracking devices listened for sound these tracked heat and light. It was an extremely new piece of tech and if Finn hadn't been such an avid learner of devices like this he too would have been in the dark.

He was knocked off his feet as yet another blast hit them. He bit back a groan. This had to have been a planned attack. They were down on supplies and Aerrow and Radarr weren't on board, having been volunteered to go and get said supplies.

Looking at his team mates he saw their expressions were panicked and frantic. Not good.

"I don't see how they're tracking us, we aren't making any sound." Piper exclaimed as she looked through the periscope at the enemy ship, muttering under her breath.

Stork looked determainedly through the window screen as he tried to dodge the blasts as they came. "Without knowing how they can track us, we are going to crash with no more than three of these hits" he theorised.

Another hit rocked the ship.

He looked over at his team mates "Make that two more hits." he corrected, left eye twitching.

Junko didn't say anything but his worried expression said plenty.

Finn looked over his friends then back at the Magnus 300, it was clear that they had no knowledge of the device and only he held the information to save them.

There was only one option, he had to take charge. It was the fastest and most efficient way to get out of this mess.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breathe, he mentally prepared himself to do this. Opening his eyes, he steeled himself and he called out.

"That tracker is the Magnus 300 and if you want to get out of here alive, you need to listen to me."

The effect was instant, the others turned to see the speaker and stared in stunned silence as the most childlike member of the squadron held the aura of utter seriousness.

Seeing that he had their undivided attention, he began to tell them the plan.

"That is a heat tracker, newest design. It tracks any heat or light source that generates from crystals so while we have our power we are sitting ducks."

Turning to the Navigator, he saw her wide eyed expression but forced himself to ignore it. He had a team to save.

"Piper, you need to find each and every heat or light crystal that's activated and deactivate them. Don't leave a single one or else they'll find us." He ordered, the words flowing out. Now that his mask was down, there was no stopping the flow of information.

Turning to the Helmsman next he said "Stork, when Pipers deactivated the crystals you need to shut of the engine and glide us to behind their ship. Don't make any noise or we're done for."

Finally addressing his best friend "Junko, get into position at the blaster, aim for the engine, it's marked with its white paint don't shot until I give the word."

"I'll provide you some cover fire and take out the surrounding talons." He pointed at himself as he talked, emphasising his plan.

He finished up his plan but his friends were still frozen to their places, staring at him, shocked at the plan that came from him.

If it were any other time he would have giggled or tried to calm them down but he knew what that weapon was capable of.

"Now guys. We don't have much time before they reload." He practically growled as he marched to his blaster. His movements seemed to jar everyone else out their trance and they quickly got immersed in their tasks.

Piper rushed out the door to reach the engine room where she went over to one of he panels where they kept the light crystals to generate the electricity for light and mental everyday equipment. Shutting them off she quickly deactivated the furnace too before telling Stork through the pipe lines she had finished.

Without further delay, Stork shut the engines off and made his way back around the way they came.

As they made a 180, they came across their enemies and could now clearly see the war ship in all it's terrible glory.

Finn could distantly hear the Merb 'eep' a little at the sight and he couldn't blame him.

As they neared closer to the ship, Finn wrapped his finger around the trigger, waiting for the right moment to strike.

A few more seconds of silence passed until Finn suddenly shouted "NOW!"

The skies were filled with chaos as energy blasts exploded on the skimmers of the Talons scouting party causing them to fall to the wastelands with their parachutes. Seeing Junko few near misses of the left engines, Finn helped him out by taking down the right side.

Soon enough the ship began to smoke and let out a metalic wail of destruction and plummeted to the Wastelands.

"Stork, get us out of here." He ordered though he probably didn't need to tell the pilot twice as they sped out of the carnage and into the clear skies, heading for the rondevoue point for Aerrow.

Finn hoped off his blaster with a sigh of relief, they were alive AND he got to see the latest model in tracking technology, even if it was trying to kill them.

He looked up when he felt the gazes of everyone else boring into head. Looking up he saw his three friends in a line, their eyes held questions he knew he wouldn't enjoy answering.

For a moment they all stood staring at each other, not speaking or breaking eye contact. The silence was too thick for and suffocated Finn so he cleared his throat and decided he couldn't act his way out of this one.

"Finn, how did you know what those trackers were?" Questioned Piper, finally breaking the tense silence.

He contemplated his next move. He could have said it was a special in those skimmer magazines he read and he was bored but he was tired of hiding this part of himself.

"I read about it in Atmosian science updates in the magazines I collect." He spoke in a small voice, so unlike his usual confident tone.

"But those magazines only contain new designs and hypothesis about new scientific research going on." Piper stated, wanting clarification about what their friend was talking about.

"I know." Finn responded quietly, his head lowering to stare at the floor and not at the questions by stares of his friends.

When no other questions followed he took that as a sign to continue.

"Look, I know I've always seemed...goofy in a way but I'm actually kinda smart." He confessed.

Stork piped up next.

"Then why didn't you say anything?" He didn't look mad, just curious and a little conserved of what the answer might be.

"On my Terra, if you weren't like the others, you were alienated from the other kids especially if the bullies targeted you." He admitted before telling them a bit about what the bullies did to him.

"I know you guys aren't like that but I've been this way for so long it's not easy to put forward my ideas anymore. I don't like showing my knowledge off." He finished his tale then waited for their response.

The had a silent communication with their eyes for a few seconds before Junko walked up to him.

"You're still you Finn, even with the added bonus of your massive brain."

Finn smiled at Junko's enthusiasm, felling a little better.

"Junko's right. We'll help you get your ideas across from now also if you like, you could help me with tactics?" Piper piped in

Finn gave her a grateful look, extra help would be nice plus he would be able to work out battle plans.

"You could also help me and Stork with repairs." Junko added, Stork nodding in agreement.

Finn stared at them agape. The repairs on the ship was their time and they didn't let people help lightly. He let a big smile cross his face.

"Thanks guys!" He said before yawning. "I think I'm gonna go and take a nap, it's pretty late."

Piper nodded "Would you be ok with Aerrow knowing the truth?" She questioned.

Finn froze.

His first friend and Sky Knight, what do if he felt cheated on? He cleared his head of those thoughts, no it wouldn't fair to hide this any longer.

"Yeah, go ahead." Before walking back to his room for some well needed rest, it would be a while until they reached Aerrow anyway.

Later on, Aerrow and Radarr roused him from his sleep to tell Finn how awesome he was today and maybe if he wasn't busy tomorrow, he could reach him a few things to which he happily agreed to.

He may still wear a mask but now he knows how to take it off around the people he trusts.

And that's all that matters to him.


End file.
